Victorian Ideology Challenged in the Edwardian Era

When the Victorian era (1837-1901) came to a close with the death of Queen Victoria, Victorian ideology carried forward into the Edwardian era (1901-1918). It was under challenge, particularly regarding the question of woman's proper place in society.

The rise of industrial capitalism that provided economic advantage for the Victorian middle- to upper-class caused a population shift to urban areas. In urban area, manufacturing provided work for working-class, formerly rural Americans and an influx of immigrant ethnic groups.

As a result, urban slums proliferated in big cities. Profit was made through labor conditions that exploited not only the men of working-class poor, but also the women and children. These social conditions became a focus for the woman suffrage movement. Suffragists argued that woman's touch was needed in politics to enact laws that would remedy inhumane working and living conditions. Men argued in return to keep the status quo.

Homeless, drunken men are being paid to vote by the "Graft Politician" as he keeps a woman and her children chained in poverty. Small vignettes show women working in sweatshops, children taking care of younger children, life in tenement housing, and the arrest of a woman speaking out for woman suffrage. The question, "Shall women vote?" is answered, "No, they might disturb the existing order of things."